NEPAD charts vision of tourism future

Members of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) secretariat used this week's WTO meeting to unveil their continental tourism action plan.

Representing NEPAD at the 41st session of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) Commission for Africa meeting, Special Advisor for Environment and Tourism, Dr. Hefphina Rukato, outlined the organisation's blue print for matching tourism and development goals.

"While many African countries have invested heavily in the tourism sector...few have given careful consideration to the type of tourism they want, to what extent their declared aims are realistic, what needs to be done to achieve those aims and how the public and private sector can work together to achieve common goals," said Dr Rukato.

The NEPAD plan highlighted six key areas for African tourism chiefs to address, namely; policies and regulation; institutional capacity ; investment in infrastructure; human resources and quality assurances; and research and development.

Developed under the guidance of previous WTO Commission for Africa meetings, starting at the 39th in Luanda, Angola, the plan is intended to address both global tourism issues and regional problems, identified by Dr Rukato as, "international debt, changing geo–political landscape, problems of unemployment and rising prices and HIV/AIDS."

Billed as an avenue for economic diversification and increased foreign exchange earnings, tourism, according to Dr. Rukato is, "recognised as one of the sectors with the most potential to contribute to the economic regeneration of the continent."

But, as WTO Secretary General Francesco Frangialli pointed out in an earlier session of the meeting, Africa currently accounts for only three percent of international arrivals and a mere two percent of tourism receipts.

In a bid to address this situation Dr. Rukato said that the NEPAD plan calls for tourism planners to identify anchor projects at national and regional level, develop regional marketing strategies, develop research capacity in tourism and to promote regional  partnerships.

The NEPAD plan goes on to say that tourism has the potential to catalyse growth in other sectors of the economy notably agriculture, horticulture and the service sector.

Despite flagging up the financial benefits Dr Rukato did offer some words of caution about a head long rush to increased tourism, saying that the, "impacts of a social, cultural and environmental nature need to be considered."

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